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Monday night’s Unrivaled action gave us the return of Skylar Diggins, a complete game from Hive and Laces becoming the first club to reach six wins.
Both games came down to the wire, highlighting the parity and intensity this league offers regularly. However, it seems that Laces are beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the league.
Hiedeman got Hive buzzing to a 2nd win
First, Hive finally earned their second win of the Unrivaled season, defeating the Lunar Owls 74-71.
For the majority of the game, Lunar Owls were in control. With Diggins fully back in form, she took charge, scoring a game-high 27 points on 9-for-18 shooting. But, Hive began their rally at the end of the third, going on a 9-2 run. Every basket for the Hive during this stretch was a 3-pointer. Natisha Hiedeman hit two of the 3s with a Kelsey Mitchell basket from beyond the arc sandwiched in between.
Aaliyah Edwards got the scoring started for Lunar Owls in the final quarter. Then, Monique Billings, Mitchell and Hiedeman all scored for Hive, making it a 69-69 game. Billings put Hive up by one thanks to a layup, but Lunar Owls responded with Marina Mabrey swishing a pull-up jumper. Lunar Owls were up 71-70 with the winning score set at 74, but Hive were ready to complete the comeback.
Hiedeman scored again, and Mitchell got the steal on the following Lunar Owls possession, taking it to the rack to score the game-winner. It was a team effort for Hive to win this contest, with four of their five players ending the game in double figures.
“Hopefully, we can just keep building on it,” Hiedeman said after the win. ”We needed every last person. So, I’m just proud of the group. Everybody had an all-around great game.”
Hiedeman ended the game with 20 points. Billings had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.
Midway through the season, Laces are now No. 1 in Unrivaled. They avoided a two-way tie with Mist for the top spot in the league with a 76-67 victory over Breeze.
With Breeze having some high-quality young stars like Paige Bueckers and Dominique Malonga, the win didn’t come easily for Laces. The victory was made possible thanks to a stellar performance from Britney Sykes. The guard was in complete control. She had 29 points, four rebounds and four assists in the win.
Breeze relied heavily on their one-two punch of Bueckers and Malonga to keep them in the game. Bueckers ended the game with 22 points. Malonga scored 18 points and grabbed 12 boards.
In the fourth, thanks to a Cameron Brink basket, Breeze were down by just two points. Unfortunately, that 67th point was the last basket her team scored. Moments later, Brink was fouled by Thomas on the nose, which she recently broke, and had to be taken out of the game.
Laces then piled on with Thomas and Sykes scoring the rest of the points, securing the result.
There’s still plenty of time left for another team to come out on top. But so far, Laces have made a compelling case as the best team in Unrivaled.
They have won six of their seven games, and with veteran leadership from Thomas and elite guard play from Sykes and Jackie Young, Laces have certainly established themselves as the team to beat.
